1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a projector and a method for manufacturing the same, and particularly to a projector including a liquid crystal display panel.
2. Related Art
Developments of projectors have been intended to improve projection performance and reduce their sizes. Projectors including, for example, transmissive liquid crystal display panels for red (R) light, green (G) light, and blue (B) light are widely used. The liquid crystal display panels absorb illumination light and generate heat. To dissipate the heat generated in the liquid crystal display panels, for example, a fan that allows cooling air to flow is used.
In a known structure for cooling a projector, cooling air flows in a direction substantially perpendicular to a plane containing optical axes in which liquid crystal display panels are disposed. In this case, the cooling air is readily supplied uniformly to the liquid crystal display panels, whereas fans and ducts that allow the cooling air to flow disposed above and below the respective liquid crystal display panels disadvantageously make it difficult to reduce the thickness of the projector. In a technology having been proposed to solve the problem, a flow path along which the cooling air flows in a direction substantially parallel to the plane containing the optical axes is provided, and the cooling air sequentially cools the liquid crystal display panels and associated polarizers. For example, JP-A-2001-281613 proposes a configuration in which liquid crystal display panels are disposed around a cross dichroic prism, which is a light combining system, and flow paths are provided on the light-incident side and the light-exiting side of the liquid crystal display panels.
Liquid crystal display panels, a cross dichroic prism, and a projection lens, which are optical components, are positioned with respect to each other and then fixed to ensure optical characteristics necessary for a projector. When the technology described in JP-A-2001-281613 is employed, it is a challenge to assemble a configuration for fixing the optical components in the projector and a configuration for cooling the optical components.